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Former nemesis of Russia now serves as governor in Ukraine’s main port of Odessa

Former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili is now the governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. He traveled by bus for a meeting with residents of a small town in southern Odessa last Tuesday to make the case that he is committed to rooting out corruption. Photo: AP

KOMINTERNIVSKE, Ukraine—For residents of this small town in southern Ukraine, the new regional governor’s inaugural visit was surprising: He came not in an official motorcade, but on a cramped minibus.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the recently appointed governor of Odessa oblast, had squeezed into the cheap van, paying the roughly $1 fare from Odessa to attend a town-hall meeting on Tuesday. Seeing a regional governor on humble public...